What if one were living through life completely bound and facing a reality that doesn't even exist? The prisoners in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" are blind from true reality as well as the people in the movie The Matrix. They are given false images and they accept what their senses are telling them. They believe what they are experiencing is not all that really exists. Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher wrote "The Allegory of the Cave," to explain the process of enlightenment and what true reality may be. In the movie The Matrix, Neo (the main character) was born into a world of illusions called the Matrix.

Neo’s true reality is being controlled by the puppet-handlers called “the machines” who use the human body as a source of energy. In the movie, Neo, finds an alternate reality and has to go on a journey to discover himself and what is around him. Much like "The Allegory of the Cave" the prisoners in a dark underground cave, who are chained to the wall, have a view of reality only based upon this limited view of the cave. Both the prisoners of the cave and Neo from The Matrix have to transcend on the path of “enlightenment” to know the truth of their own worlds. Deep within the cave the prisoners are chained by their necks and have a limited view of reality. Around them, by the distant light of the fire, they only see shadows and outlines of people or objects.

The Matrix is comparable to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" in a number of ways. Similar to the prisoners of the cave, the humans are trapped in what the modern day puppet-handlers (the machines) want them to see. In the movie, Neo is a computer hacker, and one day he suddenly realizes that his world is fake, by finding out the truth after he was released from the pod. Neo discovers that what he has been presented with his entire life is only reflections or merely shadows of the truth.

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...Plato’s classic The Allegory of the Cave and seminal science-fiction film The Matrix at first glance seem to have nothing in common. The first is written and set in the ancient times, revolving around Socrates telling his follower Glaucon about chained prisoners in a primitive cave watching shadow puppets lighted by a fire burning at the cave’s opening. The latter is a futuristic story set in a world controlled by artificial-intelligent computers that created the Matrix, a virtual world programmed for the humans to live in, as an attempt to keep the human race contained and under control. Although Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix were created in two very different centuries, they are related in many ways. Within the similarities between the two stories, themes that relate to both of the stories are presented.
Both stories have characters that are built around the same roles. For example, Neo represents the prisoner in the cave who discovers the true light of the real world. Neo had been living in a “cave,” which in this case is the Matrix. With the help of Morpheus and his team Neo is able to escape from his perception of reality and see the truth. Similarly, in Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, the prisoner was able to come out of the cave with the help of the...

...Alizada Oct/12/2012
The Matrix and The Allegory of the Cave
For an unbelievably long time, we have been all asking ourselves this question: What is real? Both science and religion have furnished us with their own answers to this fundamental question of reality. We ultimately cannot know what is real. In The Wachowskis’ story, TheMatrix, people refuse to accept the truth. The truth, being the fact, that they are in a controlled world where nothing is real. In the excerpt, The Allegory of the Cave, from Book VII of The Republic, written by Plato and narrated by Socrates, argues that life is ironic because in our quest to find the truth, all we see are our own shadows. Both “The Matrix” and “The Allegory of the Cave” have a time of rejection and a time of acceptance. The main theme presented in both stories is the nature of reality and this theme is proven in both “The Matrix” and “The Allegory of the Cave.” The only thing these ideas point to is the same underlying intuition, mainly, that the world as we experience it, is not truly, what it seems.
Let’s start off with the work of Plato and the Socrates. The plot in “The Allegory of the Cave,” has a scenario in which...

...The Matrix and The Allegory of the Cave
"The Allegory of the Cave" and "The Matrix" is similar stories which about there are two realities, one is illusion and the other is real. In both stories, the humans trapped in the in the illusion, they see only what the otehrs want them to see, but they believe they see reality as it really is. They accept what their senses tell them as all that exists.
In "TheAllegory of the Cave," the prisoners have chained their legs and necks by “puppet-handles” who creating the shadow and represent as the powerful people. In "The Matrix," people are being fooled and influenced by the fake reality, also the “shadow” because they are also living inside the artificial world they have created.
In "The Allegory of The Cave," Plato assumes that one of the prisoners has escaped from his chains and flees the cave. After, this person turning around in his chair, he would be able to see the real objects instead shadows on the cave wall. In the movie, "The Matrix," this scene directly parallels with Neo's scene in the matrix. After Neo “awake”, he see, for the first time, his true surroundings.
At first, the freed prisoner would be confused at what he saw. “…he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him,” (Plato,p2). When Neo is...

...work The Republic. In his example, known as the “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato uses an allegorical cave to show how humans are uncomfortable when exposed to the truth and that they are manipulated by higher authorities. In their 1999 motion picture The Matrix, the Wachowski brothers use a computer program to display similar ideals of Plato's allegory, including how humans are controlled and negatively react to the truth. Plato's “Allegory of the Cave” serves as a philosophical basis to The Matrix, as both works suggest that humans express discomfort while exposed to truth and both argue that people are controlled by higher authorities.
Both The Matrix and Plato's “Allegory of the Cave” suggest that humans experience discomfort when confronted with the truth, especially when it contradicts their prior beliefs. This discomfort may be so great that they will not accept the reality and resort to their previous beliefs that are false. Plato imagines prisoners in a cave—seeing nothing but shadows cast on the wall. While spending their entire lives in the cave, the chained prisoners are only able look forward at the shadows cast on the blank wall, which are projected by people and other objects passing between the prisoners and a fire. Since these shadows are the only images the prisoners see, they...

...eerily the same stories that expand on the ideas of reality, and the truth that is found within it. One, a modern movie, called The Matrix, where a man learns that his race is being controlled by a robotic race. The human race lives in a simulated world, where they are ignorant of the world that lies outside their imprisoned minds. The other a classical essay written by Plato, called “The Allegory of the Cave.” In the essay, Plato entertains the idea, of what prisoners who are raised in a cave, where all they can know to be true is shadows on a large wall that they gaze at their entire lives. They contrast in many ways, yet over the centuries since Plato’s time, the theme of his essay still applies.
One of the finest points that Plato made in his essay, was that if a man were to gaze at shadows all his life, the man would surely believe this to be reality. “To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.” This quote defines what humans see as reality. It shows that what we see, we know to be true. Plato wanted his apprentice to consider the option, that maybe what we know to be true is in fact a lie. The Matrix also relays this concept to the modern day world. Morpheus states, “The Matrix is a computer generated dreamworld.” This Dream-world is much like the shadow images that the prisoners in Plato’s cave experienced. The People in...

...The Matrix and The Allegory of the Cave
Both "The Allegory of the Cave" and "The Matrix" are stories in which there are two realities, one perceived and one real. Although "The Matrix" is not based exactly on Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave," there are several parallels between the two works. The similarities in "The Matrix," relate to Plato's concept. They project his thoughts of natural logic from "The Allegory of the Cave" into a perspective that makes it easier for people to understand when it is put into a science-fiction movie.
In "The Allegory of the Cave," the people creating the shadows represent the powerful people in society. In "The Matrix," the puppet-handlers are the machines controlled by Artificial Intelligence. The puppet-handlers use fake surroundings as a way to manipulate the information that the prisoners receive. While the prisoners are being fooled and influenced by the fake reality, the puppet-handlers are too because they are also living inside the artificial world they have created as well.
In "The Allegory of The Cave," Plato thinks that one of the prisoners would eventually be released or escaped from his chains and flee the cave. After turning around in his chair, this person would then be...

...Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
A Springboard For The Matrix
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The Cave And The Matrix Towers
In Book VII of The Republic,...

..."The Matrix" appears to be a movie of superb cinematography, gravity defying stunts, and an enjoyable, action-filled plot; however, through further analysis, it becomes apparent that it also explicitly parallels Plato's "Allegory of the Cave". In both works, the hero--the chosen, enlightened one--experiences three stages: captivity, enlightenment, and a newfound sense of responsibility.
In Plato's "Allegory of theCave", people have been kept as prisoners in a cave since birth; there they are held captive--tied up and unable to move their head side-to-side. On the cave wall in front of them, they see shadows of people and animals, made by the actions of "puppeteers" behind them, who utilize light from a fire to deceive their prisoners. Because this is all they have ever known, this "shadowed" world is perceived as reality by the prisoners. In the same way, every-day society--lawyers, office buildings, relationships--is all fake in "The Matrix". This illusion, known as the matrix, is placed into humans' minds to keep them relatively satisfied while they are being held captive by alien machines (modern-day puppeteers), which use human energy to power their AI systems. Both the "soon-to-be-enlightened" prisoner and Neo are tricked into believing that what they sense--what they hear, see, smell, touch, and taste--is real.
In his...

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